1. The Field of the Invention
This invention relates to accessing information from the Internet. In particular, the present invention relates to accessing specified classes of information using an input device and an associated user interface that uses a numeric touchpad metaphor.
2. Description of Related Art
The popularity of the Internet has profoundly improved the way people communicate by allowing users quick and easy access to information. By accessing the World Wide Web and electronic mail through computers and other devices, people now stay in touch with each other around the globe, and can access information on a virtually limitless variety of subjects.
Current methods for accessing information on the World Wide Web typically use a software program called a web browser that runs on a personal computer. Current commercial embodiments of web browser software include products such as Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. During normal operation of web browsing software, a personal computer user uses a keyboard and mouse to retrieve data from the World Wide Web by manually entering a uniform resource identifier (URI) or by following links from one Web page to another. Other commercial embodiments of methods for World Wide Web access use computer software programmed into special purpose devices used specifically for accessing the World Wide Web, but which lack the general processing power of a personal computer. There are also commercial embodiments of methods for accessing World Wide Web data using display devices associated with wireless devices such as cell phones and pagers.
When considering the methods singly, most methods allow computer users to use the components of a system they are familiar with, such as a personal computer or cell phone, to access World Wide Web information. To achieve simple and flexible access to World Wide Web information, software vendors have created Internet browsers for a variety of computer operating systems such as Windows 98, Macintosh and Unix. In addition, many vendors have developed specialized software to run on World Wide Web access devices and wireless devices.
However, due to the multiplicity of software and devices, users are often forced to use multiple devices to access World Wide Web data at different times. For instance, an a user might want to access the World Wide Web in a car and at home but can not transport his home computer in the car. As a result, the user uses a wireless device, having an interface different from his home computer, when traveling in the vehicle. Not only does the physical arrangement of the home computer and wireless device differ but the access software they run differs as well. Thus, the user is forced to learn two different hardware configurations and two different configurations of access software.
While using a variety of different methods to access World Wide Web information is often satisfactory, the time required to become efficient using different methods is sometimes burdensome to the user. First, accessing the World Wide Web using different devices and access software burdens users by requiring them to learn more then one method to access the World Wide Web. This includes requiring the user to learn the individual characteristics of each method before the user can retrieve World Wide Web information. Second, once a user learns multiple methods, identical keys or icons used by different systems can have different meanings, which confuse the user. Third, the user may want access to World Wide Web data in a uniform format when using various access devices. However, methods using different devices may not be capable of doing this, which also confuses the user.